5 Essentials for Effective Server Monitoring

Here at HOSTING, we expound the benefits of application performance monitoring, including improved business continuity, enhanced customer experiences and higher productivity. Equally as important is having effective server monitoring in place. Server monitoring allows organizations to monitor their servers’ system resources such as CPU usage, memory consumption, Disk I/O, bandwidth, etc. Companies with effective server monitoring in place have clear insights into their systems’ resource usage, helping them to plan their capacity and deliver an optimum end-user experience. HOSTING lists five essential elements every organization needs for effective server monitoring.

Server Monitoring Essentials

CPU Monitoring

The central processing unit (CPU) is the “brain” of a computer. Since it handles all the commands entered into a computer, speed is essential. CPU monitoring allows IT teams to set specific thresholds so that they are alerted if their servers’ CPU usage reaches a pre-determined critical level. This enables IT to take swift action (i.e., adding hardware or rescheduling lengthy processes) in order to bring CPU back to acceptable levels while continuing to provide high levels of customer service.

Memory Monitoring

Memory monitoring allows IT to set random access memory (RAM) thresholds so that they are alerted if RAM usage exceeds pre-set levels. If RAM is consumed too quickly, organizations may find their systems grinding to a halt or unable to perform efficiently.

Drive Monitoring

Server disk space must be monitored continuously to ensure its capacity and reliability, and enable IT to anticipate any potential hardware failures. If available disk space drops below acceptable levels, organizations may experience hardware failure, lost data and downtime. Drive monitoring allows IT to see how quickly server disks are being consumed and maintain acceptable capacity levels.

Bandwidth Monitoring

Bandwidth monitoring allows organizations to monitor their network interface and set thresholds and alerts if any of the metrics below reach critical pre-set levels.

Input traffic speed

Output traffic speed

Number of Sent error packets

Received error packets

Number of Sent dropped packets

ReceivedIMp dropped packets

Disk I/O Monitoring

Disk I/O monitoring allows IT teams to monitor Read and Write operations of logical disks on machines. It sets thresholds and sends alerts if any of the following metrics reach a critical level.

Reads/sec – the rate of read operations on the disk

Writes/sec – the rate of write operations on a disk

Queue length – the number of requests outstanding on a disk at the time the performance data is collected

Busy time – the percentage of elapsed time that the selected disk drive was busy servicing read or write requests

Server monitoring helps IT maintain the health and well being of their organizations’ networks. The five server monitoring essentials listed above are just that – essentials. The HOSTING team can help you configure a monitoring solution that is “right-sized” for your unique environment. Need more info? Feel free to peruse our Monitoring Solutions FAQs. And view our on-demand webinar, Improving Infrastructure Visibility with Enhanced Services Monitoring. You can also contact HOSTING anytime to discuss your specific needs.